PURPOSE - To investigate neurometabolism from the brain destructive lesions and striatal putamen-pallidus regions to the clinically worst side in patients with Parkinson's disease after stereotactic functional neurosurgery. METHODS - Using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H MRS), fifteen patients (7 males and 8 females; mean age 56.5 years; age range 43-67 years) with Parkinson's disease (PD) were studied to measure N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), choline-containing compounds (Cho) and lactate (Lac) levels on the neurosurgical lesions of thalamus, globus pallidus and striatal putamen-pallidus regions in a brain. RESULTS - Brain destructive lesion and striatal putamen-pallidus region in PD compared with controls were highly and significantly related to NAA/Cho ratios reduction, respectively (P =0.002, P =0.04), but showed no difference from the same regions of PD prior to neurosergery (P =0.06, P =0.77). Increased lactate peaks at 1.3 ppm were present in all the cerebral lesions, and these resonances were confirmed at a long TE =136 ms, indicating that these signals distinguished from lipids. CONCLUSIONS - Our results suggest that NAA/Cho ratios may provide as a neurometabolite marker for neurochemical changes in brain surgical lesion, and the ratios might be related to functional change of neuropathophysiological status in the striatal putamen-pallidus region of PD. Increase of lactate signals, being remarkable in surgical lesions, could be consistent with a common consequence of surgical necrosis. Therefore, MR spectroscopy could be a sensitive diagnostic tool in monitoring neurometabolic changes in PD with neurosurgical treatment.

Nuclei with the spin quantum number not smaller than unity have not only the nuclear magnetic moment but also the electric quadrupole moment. The quadrupole moment couples with the electric field gradient (EFG) to produce the nuclear quadrupole interaction. It is well known that two independent parameters, i.e. the quadrupole coupling constant (QCC) and the asymmetry parameter () together with the principal axis directions can fully describe the interaction and are very sensitive to the local symmetry and structure of the solid. In order to obtain quantitative estimates of the EFG tensor for various simple ionic configurations surrounding the nucleus under consideration, we employ the simple point charge approximation and apply the calculated results to some real crystals. General agreement is rather satisfactory.

The performance of radio frequency (RF) coils, used in MRI units, is determined by the image uniformity and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Birdcage and surface coils are commonly used. A birdcage coil provides a good image uniformity while a surface coil produces a high SNR. In this study, therefore, a staircase coil was designed from a standard version of a birdcage coil, with some structural changes to increase SNR while maintaining image uniformity. In phantom experiments, the improvement of the image to uniformity and the SNR increase of the staircase coil compared with the values for the birdcage coil were about 3.5% and 35%, respectively. In clinical experiment, the SNR increase of the staircase coil, compared with the value for the birdcage coil was about 40% in bone, muscle and blood-vessel tissues. These results show that the performance of the staircase coil was very improved over the standard birdcage coil in terms of SNR, and that image uniformity was maintained. Therefore, the staircase coil designed by this study should be useful in experimental and clinical l.5T MRI systems, and this coil offers an alternative method of quadrature detection.

Human CD99 is a ubiquitous 32-kDa transmembrane protein encoded by mic2 gene. Recently it has been reported that expression of a splice variant of CD99 transmembrane protein (Type I and Type II) increases invasive ability of human breast cancer cells. To understand structural basis for cellular functions of CD99 Type II, we have initiated studies on hCD99TMcytoI/ using circular dichroism (CD) and multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. CD spectrum of hCD99TMytoI/ in the presence of 200mM DPC and CHAPS displayed an existence -helical conformation, showing that it could form an -helix under membrane environments. In addition, we have found that the cytoplasmic domain of CD99 would form symmetric dimmer in the presence of transmembrane domain. Although it has been rarely figured out the correlation between structure and functional mechanism of hCD99TMcytoI/, the dimerization or oligomerization would play an important role in its biological function.

We synthesized a contrast agent for MRI that is capable of binding to the ABP-1 receptor and enhancing the contrast of the targeted cells. We used a lysine dendrimer (G=3)DTPA[Gd] as the contrast agent and synthesized a biotinylated polyclonal antibody for ABP-1 as the first antibody. Lysine dendrimers were prepared using the solid phase peptide synthesis method. Amino-terminated lysine dendrimers were then coupled to DTPA using the anhydride method. Gd was complexed with the DTPA-lysine dendrimer in an acidic solution of 3 eq GdCl to one of DTPA. The lysine dendrimer-DTPA[Gd] and avidin were conjugated in MES solution, pH 6.0, using EDC as the coupling reagent. The biotin-avidin system was used to link the polyclonal antibody and contrast agent. K562 cells were used for imaging.

Sarcotragins C(1) and D(2), two novel compounds, have been isolated from the sponge Sarcotragus sp. collected from Jaeju Island, Korea. The structures of these compounds have been determined to be linear sesterterpene alkaloids on the basis of combined 1D and 2D NMR experiments. The stereochemistry involved was established by comparison of the NMR data with those reported for a similar compound.

MRI of laser-polarized Xe under continuous flow conditions has recently been used for imaging of porous materials, however, any attempts at using a continuously circulating flow of laser-polarized He have not been made until now, presumably due to its extremely long spin exchange time (5-10 hrs). Since the inherent NMR sensitivity of He is 80 times greater than that of Xe when considering the natural abundance, He can be expected to be a better nucleus for imaging than Xe even under continuous flow conditions. In this report, the first MRI with continuously flowing laser-polarized He is shown for a phantom of Teflon tubing, demonstrating the feasibility of He imaging under continuous flow.